Core Keeper

In general a pretty good experience. The game looks and sounds great. The art especially imo kept getting better and better as you progressed, the bosses especially looked really cool at the end. There is plenty to do in every stage of progression. I'm glad the progression is both open and linear. The ore progression is linear but you are free to go to any of the outer biomes whenever you feel like when lowering the wall. I love the equipment levelling. It can be expensive but it allows any piece of equipment to stay viable later in the game so you can keep the effects of old equipment. Character levelling is neat, lets you always improve your stats by just playing. While trying to max out stats can be a big grind, it's never necessary unless you play on hard difficulty. The biomes themselves are pretty neat, even if slimes are reused frequently there are enough unique enemies in each biome that I don't mind. However I always feel like by the time you can fully deal with a biome's main status effect, you're already done with it. For instance poison doesn't come up often after the nature biome, you get armour with immunity to fire damage after you have no reason to be in the magma biome anymore. Things like that currently make the perk of immunity against a status effect feel pointless. Shimmering Frontier and The Passage could use more work though. They're visually neat, having nice music and The Passage was nice with its difficulty. But there is very little to do and see in there besides getting the ore and upgrade material. More setpieces and mini-dungeons could really improve these two biomes as they are very bland compared to any previous biome that have more variety. It bogs down the final bits of the game which made it difficult to want to spend much time there and basically finish it as soon as you're prepared for the bosses. This playthrough I played as the explosive class and it ain't a great class to use. It is funny and I do not regret going with it 'cus being a menace to friends, especially on accident, is hilarious. But for how dangerous you are to yourself and allies, you are not really that strong. Placeable bombs are not worth it in combat at all unless you punch the bomb and blow yourself up. Grenades miss easily and even if you hit an enemy, the damage is only passable for how slow you can throw these so it's not worth the resource cost. Which makes rocket launchers the only viable way to fight. More gimmicky explosives would also be fun. The mouse bomb was fun to use 'till it became unviable to use. Lastly, there is no way to prevent explosives from hurting allies. This makes it basically impossible to use against bosses if even just 1 friend is playing melee. A potion would be neat. Something you can drink to gain immunity to explosives from allies for a few minutes. This allows explosives to be used in a boss fight AND if someone does die thanks to you, you can blame them for forgetting to drink the potion. PvP should get a slight rework too. I know this game ain't a competitive game but if you randomly fight a friend for fun, the fight tends to end really fast. Especially around the lategame where everyone's average damage gets around 500-1000, with a lot of builds effortlessly insta-killing a player even if they're completely maxed out. A little damage modifier like 0.5x on players could help with that.

This game has an excellent gameplay loop for the first half of the game. The progression through the first major bosses feels fleshed out and satisfying. However, anything past that grinds to a screeching halt in terms of pacing. Everything becomes a major grind, weapons for anything but melee are not fun to get (in my playthrough, I was a summoner, and the next weapon in my progression required mining for a chest which has a small % to show up in each tile, and the weapon has only a small % to show up in said chest). This game started with a great idea, but it feels like the devs forgot they had to develop ideas for the entire game instead of the first half. Came away very disappointed.

Fun little game to chill with. A lot of fun if you can get friends to play with and divvy up work. Plays a lot like terraria, but better since you don't need a Wikipedia on you other screen to play.

This game has a lot of potential, but honestly, I can't stand the gameplay loop and the only viable class on Hard difficulty is the melee class. Leveling up the Mage and Summoner classes is EXTREMELY slow, frustrating, and the lack of armor needed to survive most bosses is nigh impossible as both Summoner and Mage. The magic barrier that's supposed to serve as "armor" is about as useful as wearing cardboard for protection. Don't get me wrong, the damage output is there. Mage and Summoner both do GREAT damage. [b] When the f*cking Summons actually target the boss and not just fly around you aimlessly. [/b] But god forbid you get hit even ONCE by the boss. If you get hit once by a boss? That's it. You're done. Pack it up, the shows over. You're going back to the Core, sh*tbag. And the f*cking potions, dude. One minute duration potions? Really? A potion that only lasts for ONE WHOLE MINUTE? Y'all got some f*cking work to do if y'all want me to change this review to Positive. This is the worst class balancing I've ever seen in any game. Terraria did the Summoner Class right, even in its infancy. It wasn't perfect, but it wasn't NOT viable.

i locked into this game in a way i cannot even describe. every update was cuter and more fun than the last, the bosses meaty, the music peak, and the base building extensive.

I loved this game and want so much more of it. It is a real grind to 100% but if you are playing with others that time passes real quick.

A great time. If you like terraria, or valheim, this is the isometric version of it. Fantastic modern progression ARPG.

so much content gamplay is so satisfing gets frequent updates only unlocked 23 percent of achevments

A solidly mid 2D pixel action game with minor crafting, exploration, and sandbox elements. Any comparisons to games like Factorio, Stardew Valley, or Terraria would feel deeply disingenuous. This is a comparably shallow game, only alluding to the depth of the mechanics of these titans, and any similarities only hold up on the most surface-level reading. Falling deeply within the "More fun with friends" category, Core Keeper is a nice social space that enables exploring a rather static world together while collecting resources and building a small base in the process. Gear and skill progression is basic but fun, and apart from pacing issues after around 20 hours, where the world runs out of content, is a pleasant treadmill to make people play together and collaborate on resource collection. Base building is cute and simple, and like all other mechanics, well-designed towards not getting in the way too much and not taking up any mental space while hanging out in the world. Auto-sorting chests and other QoL features adapted from mods of better games show the developers cared about creating an approachable and fun game. The story is basically non-existent and, like the rest of the game, doesn't get in the way of the core gameplay loop of easy and consequence free arcade combat and fast-paced exploration in a smallish world. The game is solid but nothing really special. I wouldn't recommend this actively to anyone, but fun can be had here. If you are looking for a fun 20-30 hours of hanging with friends, go for it. But if you heard any comparisons to the games mentioned above and think you're getting a deep experience, this isn't for you.

I really wanted to like this game since the development team had crossovers with Re:Logic. I can't in good conscience recommend this game. I'll probably play another 10-15 hours or so to wrap up a couple of remaining bosses, but I don't see myself doing the seasonal events or future updates. Pros: The music Beautiful biomes The slimes serving multiple purposes (A useful enemy!) Cons: [b] 1.) The chest storage system is atrocious much of the early game. [/b] There are far too many junk items (i.e., spawn tiles, useless armor sets, etc.) that can be picked up randomly. I often found myself having to discard completely random tiles that got destroyed while mining or by enemies. [b]2.) Most of the armor and weapons you find after the first couple of bosses quickly become obsolete.[/b] Your best bet is just to use the anvil to craft new weapons with every new ore tier (ore/crafting tiers are another problem). Useful sets like the mining set, fishing set, and radiation protection suit are more trouble than they're worth to get. [b]3.) Time Waster for the Sake of Extending the Game - [/b] As you progress through the game it is extremely noticeable that the devs did certain things to stretch out play time. For example, pickaxes of the most recent ore tier become sluggish when entering the next progressive biome. This slows you down drastically when trying to get enough of the next ore. They need to fix the mining speeds, since the speeds make odd jumps between tiers. Another thing they do to slow down progression is the increasing material requirements to craft workbenches, armor, and weapons/tools. They make you create a new workbench and anvil FOR EVERY SINGLE ORE TIER. It's ridiculous when considering that there are only 3 smelters that let you smelt 3 unique ores each. There really should have only been 3-4 tiers of workbenches and anvils instead of 9ish. You start off creating a workbench for 6 wood. The final tier, solarite, needs 40 solarite bars, 30 galaxite bars, and 70 gleamwood. An exponential increase in cost. Don't even get me started on the armors. Thank God for ore boulders. [b]4.) Summoning Bosses is not Intuitive and Finding Summoning Materials Sucks - [/b] Glurch, Ghorm, and the Hive Mother are relatively easy bosses to find since they either make loud noises, move around, or are in biome specific locations. Malugaz is where things start getting confusing. Enemies in Malugaz's biome, The Forgotten Ruins, drop crystal skulls shards. That's not the problem. The problem is how the player was supposed to know how they were supposed to right click when they obtained three of them. The tool tip on the crystal skull shards was "An ancient crystal shard that is only the fraction of something bigger.". As far as I can tell, this mechanic isn't used again for any other bosses. Future bosses have a crafting station where you can make a scanner and summoning item, which have their own material requirements. Those material requirements often include rare items, such as the Scarab Wingcover which has a 0.05% chance of spawning on a tile. You need 20 of them, so I hope you enjoy running around the Desert of Beginnings for 2+ hours. [b] 5.) Some Enemies Just Plain Suck - [/b] Specifically the Larva. This is another enemy that seems to be aimed at extending play time. They'll tear down anything the player puts down (torches, rail tracks, etc), ergo the player needs to ensure they dig up all the larva spawning tiles. This is not fun. Most of the enemies in this game exist to annoy you, and not to prove as a challenge, an creative obstacle, or useful in terms of crafting. [b] 6.) Permanent Health Upgrades - [/b] These are almost impossible to find. You sort of just stumble your way into them. You're most likely to run into the mushroom and amber larva upgrade. They're really easy to miss, so your best bet is to just buff with potions and craft better armor sets. There needs to be a better way to increase health for the average player.

I should like this game, but for some reason I'm just bored while playing it. It might be better playing with other people to give it some life, but as a solo player, whenever I start playing the game I just get super bored and restless while playing. It just feels empty.

If you like terraria, you will love this as well, its just good. ~30h of gameplay and I didnt get 100% just killed the final boss

Sometimes you need a game that you can get lost in - this is it. I’m obsessed. The different biomes, the crafting, the grinding, the cooking and the exploring is amazing. The map size is insane. There is so much to do!

Very fund and cozy with a mix of challenging aspects, it is the opposite of most games where more player is easier, here, when there are more players, it is harder since all players need to be geared up before taking bosses/enemies

Be great if their was a guide to help u along the way but once u know what ur doing its a great game.

Crazy addicting and fun, yet still contains a decent amount of challenge. I highly recommend playing it WITHOUT mods.

Fun game, fairly simple, more fun with multiplayer

veri cool, like terraria but top down, a mix of other games here and there like a lil bit of factorio

Originally I took this to be a Stardew Valley with Dark Soul bosses, it's not. It is however a great survival game with a good sense of progression. Not going to spoil anything except the early game. The game plops you straight into the underground that will be your entire world, most likely your main base will be set up at the Core, which is where you spawn and where you are literally the safest in the entire world, I don't think it's possible for enemies to spawn in the room itself but they can make their way down the caves you will likely be digging. The best thing I gotta commend is that I don't think anyone talks about that the devs put in was that there is a persistent in the world. By that I mean things are still happening even when the player/s are not actively around it to warrant it being loaded in. My experience with this was at the beginning of my game, I came across a small meadow area with two cows and a goat. I clicked on them and saw you can name them, I gave them all silly names and realized I'd need to come back with the proper items to take them back to my base. Cut to 15 hours later, I've completely forgotten about them, happen to walk by one of the areas where I found the meadow and noticed that there was milk on the ground....there was a lot of milk actually. I followed the mysterious milk trail like candy until I came across those same two cows, now far away from the meadows. They had travelled all the way down the cave I made when I first found the meadow. They had been moving the entire time I was elsewhere gathering ores and materials for crafting. That honestly impressed me. The progression system feels really good, never too cluttered and for every bench upgrade you can just recycle the previous one and still have access to that tier of crafting, which feels awesome when trying to organise an area. It's worth putting time into this game, I haven't had a bad time yet with it.

Game has very little respect for the players time unfortunately. Too much time spent sorting through inventory deleting outrageous amounts of junk tiles. The map is simply too large in relation to the content offered. Material costs for progression are just ridiculous. Progression feels too much like busywork, and not enough fun or exciting upgrades. Around 15 hours in this game became a painful slog, and all the weapons and toys I discovered in the last 5 of those hours felt very underwhelming. According to other reviewers it only gets worse.

The graphics are very good, there is a great level of storyline and sandboxing. 100% would recommend.

i yearn for the mines. the mines yearn for me. On a serious note this game is goddamn fun. Exploration is fun, enemies are never boring and their ai is actually pretty fantastic. There's many classes to experiment with, so much decorations and mechanical stuff to mess around with, always something to work toward when you've finished a task. Don't get me started on the insanely beautiful environments that I never knew were possible in a pixelated game. The water physics? Gorgeous. I love every biome, I love the little slimes who are so chill (until you accidentally punch them), I love this gawdamn game. 11/10 will play for several hundred hours more

Incredibly well made and addictive game. I'm actually surprised how good it is considering the game isn't that well known and the reviews that currently exist for are just like 'yeah, it's pretty good I suppose'. All in all, it's quite an underrated gem.

Core Keeper has it all such an amazing game! want to go solo the game is fun want to play with friends the game is amazing for this too! the progression feels smooth and the battles are fun. Base building in this game is so much fun.

Great co-op game that 2x 40y/o buddies grinded out. 45 SOLID hours of game play. Recommend.

Good and addictive. Stop reading comments. Go buy and support the developer

Haven't played such an amazing game in a long time. Controls are great. Exploration kept surprising me. Challenge level is adequate, and I learned way too late that Q will store everything from your inventory to nearby chests with corresponding items!!!

I was never big into Terraria. Couldn't get used to the side scrolling design and how floaty character movement felt, I guess? Core Keeper scratches that itch and so far has been quite a lot of fun. I'm sure it won't have near as much content as a game that's been in semi-regular development for more than a decade, and it certainly seems to lack the frenzied modding community, but what's here is already very enjoyable. I do think it's a bit on the easy side on Standard, and even Hard can be rather easy if you're diligent about upgrading and hoarding. So I added an additional requirement that I have to discard everything I have equipped (along with leaving behind the death bag that you always drop, rather than recovering it) and it's been a total blast! Deaths feel meaningful, but without the insane death spiral that playing on Hardcore resulted in. For the price, there's a lot here and if you're looking for something designed along the same lines as Terraria, it's highly recommended.

Straightup keeping it... and by it... lets just say my core

Perfect Cozy game with lots of exploration!

Overall fun game, easy to get started, not overly complex like Terraria with plenty of interesting items to craft and areas to explore with friends.

This is one of the best survival games ive played in awhile, its exactly what ive been looking for. familiar enough to where im not lost, but very unique in its gameplay and style. HIGHLY recommend

Good quality of life features in storage and item collection. Also, lets you focus on story or just playing around discovering new areas. Great game for all types of gamers.

great game, lost of ways to just chill and build your base or run around collecting resources

10/10 I love the environments, the music, the game-play, everything about it. its very relaxing and offers limitless exploration and building. Ive had the game since early-access and its only gotten better with time. I have nothing negative to say about it honestly. Well worth buying at full price.

Take the best aspects of Minecraft, Terraria and every other survivalcraft game and you get... ..Core Keeper. (If that wasn't obvious)

Very good game and funny as a group. You better make sure you play at the same time, so all can be a part of all technology steps. Be warned the difficulty in this game skyrockets the more you reach the end. Not for lazy or stupid people

Killed a mushroom Found a funny biome Killed a bug Got jumped by 22 big bugs 10/10 game, would recommend

Banger game, so fun to play, love the pixel are and the bosses, the final fight was amazing weapons were cool too

Core Keeper blends elements of survival sandbox, coziness, action combat, and RPG-style progression in ways that few other titles do. This game is truly a labor of love - and it shows! Don't sleep on this game.

This game is fantastic! It is such a fun survival craft game. It's not too complicated where you can't figure things out by yourself, but it's also not too simple where it gets boring after a while. Sure, some of the progression is a little repetitive, but there is always something a little different in each area you come across. There is a good mob variety which keeps things fresh. Lots of different builds that you can make without feeling like you are missing out on the ultimate build. This is a go at your own pace kinda game, but you always have something to do until the very end. The game was so fun that I ended up getting 100% of the achievements. I recommend playing this with a friend, but if not, it's still really fun playing solo. The devs are really good at community feedback and they are good at releasing new updates often that add more content and fix any game breaking bugs. The game is so fun that I am playing it again on my switch with another friend and it feels mostly like a fresh experience. There used to be issues I had with the game such as having to respawn bosses if everyone dies fighting it (which costs resources), but the devs fixed that issue and other issues I had. Besides some repetitive core progression, I don't really have anything bad to say about the game. I give it a 9.5 out of 10. TL;DR The game is a lot of fun, but especially with a friend and it has frequent updates to make it better and better. Definitely recommend to those who love survival craft games. Not too simple. Not too complicated. Get it!

if u don't play core keeper what are u doing in life? this game is perfect for me, stardew gave me so much anxiety in comparison to core keeper. i enjoy setting my own pace for exploration and being able to take my time getting lost in the world, truly the best game ever.

It takes the best of Terraria and Minecraft and gives it a beautiful makeover. The sounds and the visuals are stunning. The fighting is super fun and intuitive

Dedicated server world reset after latest update, erasing everyone's progress. :( Fishing ranged build works though. :)

Core Keeper is a cross between Terraria and Minecraft, with 2.5D visual. The game plays well, combat is engaging enough, and both its visual and auditory aesthetics are enjoyable. The map is immense and it makes explorations rewarding. There are 8 classes to choose from, each offering slightly distinct starting stats and items, but the game lets you transition easily if you don't like the class you started with. The bosses could be a little tougher, and there could have been added more weapons types. Besides that it's fun game to play solo or with friends, with lots to do.

A classic mine/battle to get better gear, to mine/battle. Cool skill tree level up system too, with a touch of automation of materials available. Has a story element too, bosses, secret bosses. I would recommend this to anyone who would like a Minecraft/Terraria/StardewValley cross over.

the games good HOWEVER i really miss being able to use permanent health upgrades multiple times i HATE that they are one time use now PLEASE add an option in gameplay to revert back to the old way. thank you God bless

Strongly recommend. It hits all of the addictive dimensions for me - interesting but unobtrusive environmental storytelling; artful and charming soundtrack; massive and varied world; deep and relaxing single-player experience. Multi-player is fun but a very different experience from single-player (especially depending on the personalities of your friends); I personally value the ability to have both multi-player and single-player save games.

A relatively chill and cozy game that makes hours fly by without you even noticing. I do wish the classes had more depth, but overall, it’s a fun and enjoyable experience.

Always find myself returning to this game for a chill adventure into it's depths. Always a fun time and it and keeps me coming back for more, what else can you ask for?